Garamendi, Brown Take Aim at 1994 : Democrats: Possible rivals for the gubernatorial nomination strike an anti-Wilson, pro-California theme. State party convention ends on optimistic note.

In speeches that presaged the likely battle for their party’s nomination for governor in 1994, Democrats Kathleen Brown and John Garamendi on Sunday sketched optimistic views of the future for an embattled California and placed blame for its malaise squarely on the shoulders of the man they hope to succeed.

Brown, the state treasurer, and Garamendi, state insurance commissioner, closed out a three-day Democratic Party convention that was dedicated largely to celebrating the party’s 1992 victories and fanning enthusiasm for a run at Republican Gov. Pete Wilson next year.

Neither Brown nor Garamendi took the opportunity to formally jump into the ring, maintaining coy flirtations with the race that are expected to continue for several months. But their intentions could not have been more clear.

“If 1992 marked the year voters took back the White House, then 1994 must mark the year we take back the Statehouse,” Brown told 2,400 delegates at the convention center here.

“Pete Wilson said last year: ‘California is a bad product,’ ” she added, referring to a statement the governor made while decrying the state’s business regulations.

“But guess what. Pete Wilson’s got it wrong. He just doesn’t get it.

“It’s time for straight talk, but it’s also time for leaders to take charge. And it’s time for Californians to believe in California again.”

Garamendi, who followed Brown to the stage, struck a similar anti-Wilson, pro-California theme.

“Pete Wilson does not know California. He doesn’t know our people, he doesn’t know our languages,” Garamendi said. “Under Pete Wilson’s leadership we have seen the California dream turned into the California nightmare.”

The insurance commissioner contended that a Democratic governor could reverse the tide of events that have hobbled the state’s economy for several years.

“It will happen because we are California, we are Californians, and we will choose a leader who will get the job done for the state and who will make California work again,” he said.

The governor’s race was the hot topic of conversation throughout the convention. Brown and Garamendi circulated through the delegates seeking to build support for their candidacies and create telegenic images for their budding campaigns.

Even Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), who has spent weeks trying alternately to stoke and drown out rumors of his desire to replace Wilson, found himself compelled to add to the mix.

Addressing the delegates Saturday, Brown closed his speech with an intentionally provocative teaser.

In 1994, he said, “there will either be a Garamendi for governor or a Kathleen for governor or a different shade of Brown for governor.”

The latter reference drew laughter and warm applause from the Speaker’s partisans.

The other Brown--Kathleen--and Garamendi nonetheless drew most of the serious attention. National and state party leaders spared no adjectives in describing the battle between Wilson and the Democratic nominee as the sharpest test of what Democrats perceive as their national resurgence.

“There are few, if any, races next year in any state that are more important than having a Democrat return to the governorship of this state,” said David Wilhelm, the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “And we stand by prepared to help out in any way we can.”

Wilhelm said the assistance would range from an influx of money to the DNC’s chief tool: sending in President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and other Administration officials to rally state voters.

Outgoing state party Chairman Phil Angelides, who turned his job over to Los Angeles television commentator Bill Press on Sunday, said the 1994 race represents a potential watershed.

It would, he said, “turn the chance that the voters gave us in 1992 into the mandate for 1994, and potentially make California--if we do it right--a Democratic stronghold for decades to come.”

But Angelides and Press differed on whether that chance would be heightened or threatened by what is expected to be a fierce struggle between Garamendi and Brown for the party’s nomination.

Angelides argued against any attempt to spare the Democrats a contested primary, which always carries with it the possibility of crippling wounds even to the winner.

“That contested primary can test those candidates and prepare them for the fall,” he said. “That preparation from the primary gets people sharpened up.”

But Press indicated that he is troubled by the likelihood that more than one high-profile Democrat will be running for governor and in several other statewide races in 1994.

“I hope we can avoid primary battles,” he said.

As far as the probable Democratic candidates were concerned, Sunday was not seen as a day to lay out specifics of their contest.

Kathleen Brown’s speech, while heavy with optimistic assertions about California’s present and past, avoided any mention of her priorities as a gubernatorial candidate. Indeed, she maintained that the state needed only one thing: “Leadership.”

Garamendi based much of his address on the issue on which he clearly hopes to capitalize: health care reform. He urged Californians to support President Clinton’s effort to dramatically restructure the health care system.

As for the governor’s race, he said, “that is next year’s struggle.”

Somewhat paradoxically, the harshest and most specific speech of the day was delivered not by a prospective gubernatorial candidate but by state Controller Gray Davis, who is pondering a bid for lieutenant governor next year.

“Once we were a proud national symbol of opportunity and progress,” he said. “Now we are a leader in unemployment. Once we made national news for innovation; now we make headlines for insolvent government.”

Davis accused Wilson of trying to “cheat honest, hard-working citizens” by forcing the financially pressed state to issue IOUs last year. He called the IOUs a “man-made problem. . . . And that man is Pete Wilson, and he has got to go,” Davis said.